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Taliban in Pakistan Confirm That Their Leader Is Dead

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban leaders acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was dead, confirming claims of American and Pakistani officials.

The acknowledgment of Mr. Mehsud’s death came as rights groups were demanding an inquiry into reports of extrajudicial killings in the Swat Valley, where dozens of bodies have surfaced in execution-style killings in areas where the Pakistani military has conducted operations to push out Taliban militants.

The Pakistan Army denies any involvement in extrajudicial killings and says the deaths could be acts of revenge by local residents who suffered when the Taliban controlled the area.

American and Pakistani officials had said they were all but certain that Mr. Mehsud, who had accepted responsibility for a string of deadly terrorist attacks across the country in recent years, had been killed in a missile strike by an American drone on Aug. 5.

Pakistani intelligence officials also said there were indications of violent infighting over who would succeed him, and reported briefly that one of his possible successors, Hakimullah Mehsud, had been killed.

But on Tuesday, Taliban leaders tried to dispel reports of Hakimullah Mehsud’s death or the impression of a rift in their leadership.

Photo

Waliur Rahman, a Taliban official, center and seen from rear, Saturday in the Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border.Credit
Associated Press

Two men claiming to be Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rahman, another Taliban commander, contacted several media outlets to confirm Baitullah Mehsud’s death and put up a unified front. They also announced that Hakimullah Mehsud would take over leadership of the Pakistani Taliban, while Mr. Rahman would lead the Taliban in South Waziristan, the rugged tribal region that had been Baitullah Mehsud’s stronghold.

But Pakistani officials immediately cast doubt on the claims and about whether Hakimullah Mehsud was alive or dead. The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik, contends that Hakimullah Mehsud is dead. Analysts said the public admission of Baitullah Mehsud’s death came after it became increasingly difficult for the Taliban to continue denying it.

Rahimullah Yousafzai, an analyst and journalist based in Peshawar, speaking to the Geo television network, said the Taliban initially thought they could hide Mr. Mehsud’s killing. “It wasn’t possible for them to hide it and eventually they have admitted now,” he said.

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Meanwhile, in the northern Swat Valley, villagers and district officials have found dozens of bodies of suspected militants in the past two weeks. Three bodies were found in the Danagram area on the outskirts of Swat’s central town of Mingora on Tuesday morning, the BBC reported.

Most of the dead had multiple gunshot wounds and were found dumped in fields and alleys while blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs.

“The commission reiterates that it has come across credible accounts of extrajudicial killings and complaints of reprisal attacks by the security forces during the operation in Swat,” Asma Jahangir, the chairwoman of the commission, said in the statement.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Taliban in Pakistan Confirm That Their Leader Is Dead. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe